Virtualization is often a core component for servers, cloud computing, and virtual desktop environments (VDE) and is often used in data centers because it allows a great deal of flexibility in the provisioning and placement of servers and their associated workloads in the data center. In system virtualization, multiple virtual computing systems or virtual machines are created within a single physical computing system. The physical system can be a stand-alone computer, or alternatively, a computing system utilizing clustered computers and components. Virtual systems, or virtual machines, are independent operating environments that use logical or real divisions of physical resources such as processors, memory, and input/output (I/O) adapters. System virtualization is implemented through some managing functionality, typically hypervisor technology. Hypervisors, also called virtual machine managers (VMMs), use a thin layer of code in software or firmware to achieve fine-grained, dynamic resource sharing. Hypervisors are the primary technology for system virtualization because they provide the greatest level of flexibility in how virtual resources are defined and managed.
Virtualization allows a service provider to create a system of resources and provide slices of these resources to a plurality of customers via local or network access. The agreement between the service provider and customer comes in the form of a service-level agreement (SLA) and is a common business practice known in the art. The SLA can define the duration of service, the quality of service, whether it be in the form of resources allotted or users serviced, a guaranteed availability rate, etc. In addition, the SLA can define the possibility of elastic acquisition of resources to satisfy workload demands outside of the scope of the original SLA. This elastic acquisition of resources involves the creation of additional virtual machines by the service provider, a process that can take fifteen to twenty minutes, and then upon creation, allocating the resources of the virtual machine to the consumer.